The present invention relates to a disc wheel, particularly for rail vehicles.
It is known to manufacture such disc wheel, for instance, railroad wheels, from a composite of metal and fiber-reinforced materials. Examples therefor are shown in German Patent Nos. 33 45 555 and 35 06 007. Through such a composite structure, the weight of the disc wheels can be reduced in comparison with otherwise purely metal wheels. By the structural damping of the fiber-reinforced materials used, also the noises occurring during operation are reduced. In addition, the forces occurring during operation on the disc wheel in the radial, axial and circumferential direction can be adapted to the required strength and stiffness properties.
The disc wheel according to the above-mentioned German Patent No. 35 06 007 comprises as the thrust transmission body a Z-rib body which consists, for insance, of shell-like segments which follow each other without gap in the circumferential direction of the disc wheel and which rest with their radially inward and outward side walls against the hub and the tread, respectively, in the region between the flanges located there and with their side walls extending between the hub and the tread against side walls of adjacent segments and are cemented to the latter. The shell bottoms of successive segments are located on opposite sides of the disc wheel. Cover discs are further cemented on this thrust transmission body on both sides. The cavities of the segments can be foamed up with plastic material.
The disc wheel according to the above-mentioned German Patent No. 33 45 555 comprises two hub halves which have mirror symmetry in the axial direction and each have circumferential flanges at the axial outer rims. The thrust transmission body is, for instance, a honeycomb structure of plastic, aluminum or the like. The cover discs are connected to the circumferential flanges of the hub halves by means of a two-section joint.
In both known disc wheels, the individual parts are cemented together. Other connections are not required. However, the cemented joints between metal parts and the rest of the wheel structure of fiber-reinforced materials are stressed in transverse tension due to the stresses of the rail wheel in operation.
The necessary designs of the metal parts to be joined are still relatively costly, especially in the disc wheel according to German Patent No. 33 45 555 and require increased costs for chip removal machining, as, for instance, in the case of undercuts.
The manufacturing procedure for the disc wheel according to the German patent No. 35 06 007 is relatively complicated since especially the shell-shaped segments of fiber-reinforced materials can be processed only in the wet or in the half-dried state.